Russian air strikes 'kill more civilians than ISIS fighters'

Russian airstrikes killed more civilians than Islamist fighters over the last month of raids, a monitoring group has said.

The Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a British-based group using a network of local activists, said Russian air strikes had killed 403 civilians including 97 children and 69 women. This was compared to 381 Islamists from a mixture of ISIS and rebel groups.

The activist group documented the deaths from 20 October to 20 November and said a total of 42,234 air strikes were carried out by regime's air force on top of the Russian strikes.

Civilians run though dust in a site damaged by what activists said were airstrikes carried out by the Russian air force in the rebel-controlled area of Maaret al-Numan town in Idlib province, Syria.Reuters

The figures follow report from the Daily Mail that Russian air force hit 472 ISIS targets over the weekend in 141 missions.

The jets hit numerous Syrian cities including the capital Damascus as well as Aleppo, Homs and Raqqa, the ISIS stronghold. Moscow's bombing campaign, which began in September has been stepped up in recent weeks since ISIS claimed responsibility for downing a Russian civilian plane flying over Egypt. All 224 people on board were killed, mainly Russians.

In the last week France has also intensified its bombing campaign against ISIS in Syria after the Paris terror attacks, again carried out by ISIS, killed 130 people.

News of the latest attacks came as Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Tehran, Iran for talks with supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei and President Hassan Rouhani.

Earlier this week the UN passed a resolution to take "all necessary measures" measures to eradicate ISIS in Syria and Iraq. "All necessary measures" is usually UN code for the use of force which one presumes means further air strikes.

David Cameron will make the case for Britain to join the military action against ISIS in Syria to MPs in the House of Commons on Thursday. A vote is expected next week and his chances of convincing MPs to support his proposal is greatly increased